New protections for tenants will soon come into effect that include limits on what landlords can charge and a way out of long-term leases.

Practices such as demanding multiple months of rent in advance and locking tenants out will become illegal May 1 under new safeguards in the Consumer Protection Act passed last month to more tightly regulate landlords and boost the rights of renters. The changes apply to property owners that lease five or more residential units, whether in one or multiple buildings.

“These new laws are done to protect tenants,” said Wirot Poonsuwan, a lawyer with a background in land rights. “On the other hand, landlords will now have their work cut out for them.”

One major change is that long-term leases can be terminated with 30-days notice provided tenants are current on their rent and give “reasonable” cause. That should make things easier for the nearly 20,000 members of the Take Over My Lease group on Facebook.

“Of course, a reasonable reason needs to be given,” said real estate consultant Sopon Pornchokchai. “For foreigners, that might be the need to move back to their country, and for Thais it might be the need to move due to a government position transfer. You can’t just up and leave whenever you want.”

Allowing renters to terminate their contracts will be a “big shock to the market,” he added. “Everyone’s going all, what are we gonna do? And now people will be getting lawyers and solicitors to check their contracts and everything, even if they never did before.”

Sophon said the news has largely gone unnoticed by the public but has been a big concern to big companies, including foreign ones, that rent land.

“The higher-ups all know about this,” Sopon said. “Apartment owners are having a huge headache right now,” Sopon said. “Before, it was sabai sabai. Now it will be strict.”

The new regulations also prevent property owners from adding extra charges for things like water, electricity and Wi-Fi. Instead, they must charge only what is actually on the bill.

Amazed nobody has commented on this, there must be many renting/leasing property on here ...

THAI LAW: WHAT LANDLORDS MUST NOW DO (OR GO TO JAIL)
On May 1, residential leases will become restricted contracts under the newly amended Consumer Protection Act.

That means any leases that conflict with the new law, which likely is most leases, must be amended and remade to comply. Landlords who ignore the new legal requirements and take no action to deliver a new compliant lease to the tenant are criminally liable for a year in jail and fine of 100,000 baht per lease violation.

A landlord who doesn’t issue new compliant leases for their 10 units, if discovered by the authorities or subjected to a complaint, faces the possibility of 10 years in jail.

That’s heavy punishment for what used to be purely a civil and commercial transaction. Further, the law contemplates that any existing contract obligations in a non-compliant lease are null and void, with the new legal stipulations adopted as the binding contract instead.

Furthermore, property owners must know that American-style class-action lawsuits have arrived for consumers in Thailand. Tenants who want to bring legal action can now band together to do so jointly to sue the same landlord and share in the amount of damages granted.

Setting aside those alarming or heartening developments – depending on which side of the contract one sits – let’s unpack some of the specific consequences of the new law.

Note that while the regulations apply to a “residential lease business” – meaning landlords who rent out a total of five or more residential units – that doesn’t make much difference as a great number of landlords in Thailand lease out more than five properties. The regulations don’t cover dormitories or hotels, which are beholden to separate laws.

Amazed nobody has commented on this, there must be many renting/leasing property on here ...

I was thinking exactly the same, only last night. Maybe our member landlords are all squeaky clean. Either that, or they're putting heads in the sand, believing this is yet another Thai law with nobody to enforce it.